Background

Early marriage is a common practice in developing countries, with tremendous health implications for women and their newborn children. Few studies have explored teenage marriage in Bangladesh, where the current study was designed to fill this gap. 

Objectives

This study aimed to find the socio-economic and demographic factors that influence the timing of early marriage among women in Bangladesh. 

Material and methods

A cross-sectional study design was used in our study. Using Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2014 data, we have applied the non-parametric survival analysis technique of the Cox proportional hazards model. 

Results

 Early marriage was more common in all regions, and this risk was highest in the Rangpur Division (HR = 1.297; CI: 1.215–1.385; p < 0.001). Women who reside in rural areas married earlier than their counterparts in urban areas (HR = 0.918; CI: 0.883–0.955; p < 0.001). The age at first marriage was directly related to access to media (HR = 0.767; CI: 0.739–0.794; p < 0.001) and education levels, where women should have at least secondary education before marriage. Poor women also married early than upper-class (HR = 0.925; CI: 0.871–0.983) and middle-class (HR = 0.954; CI: 0.915–0.994) women. 

Conclusions

The study’s findings may provide some clues to increase the age of Bangladeshi women at first marriage. Region, maternal education, place of residence, wealth index, working status and media access were significantly associated factors with the timing of first marriage among women in Bangladesh.